Good & Bad: Artturi Lehkonen Makes Instant Impact, Avalanche Double Up Kraken 6-3

DENVER — The Avalanche didn’t get all their injured forwards back. But just by adding Artturi Lehkonen into the lineup for his season debut on Tuesday, things fell more into place.

The result: A 6-3 victory over the Seattle Kraken at Ball Arena, five assists for Nathan MacKinnon, two assists for Cale Makar, and a crucial goal for Lehkonen, and an assist. It’s his first game in almost six months.

Colorado’s other goals came from Chris Wagner, Ivan Ivan, and two from Mikko Rantanen.

With the teams knotted up at 2-2, Lehkonen and the Avs found themselves on the power play after Rantanen was hauled down by Chandler Stephenson. Colorado’s top unit, which now includes Lehkonen in the net-front position, did an excellent job cycling the puck. eventually, MacKinnon fed Lehkonen in the slot and his wrist shot trickled past Philipp Grubauer after the goalie initially got a piece of it.

Rantanen added to the lead a little over two minutes later, adding a power play tally off a setup from Makar. The play was challenged for offside and later reviewed a second time after initially being called back. The Avs had the officials look at it again after arguing that the puck entry into the Kraken zone was because of a missed shot by Seattle that missed the net and rimmed around the boards.

Wagner opened the scoring early in the first period but the Kraken tied it up 10 minutes later. After their response, Ivan put home his third of the season to make it 2-1. Seattle answered back once more just 23 seconds into the second period. It was all Avalanche from there.

Justus Annunen got the start again for Colorado and made 17 saves to earn the win.

Good: Artturi Lehkonen

What a refreshing addition to the lineup. Lehkonen gave the MacKinnon and Rantanen familiarity on the other wing for the first time since Jonathan Drouin was injured on opening night.

Perhaps that’s what they both needed. Despite MacKinnon being among the league leaders in points — and now No. 1 in the league — he hadn’t yet had a full-domination type of game. The consistency he’s shown all season, extending his point streak to 13 games, has played a big part in his early season production.